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Grand Admiral Joe & the Buried Treasure

by Allen Hingle

368 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1304; ISBN 1-4120-0935-9; US$30.50, C$36.95, EUR23.95, £16.95

A sci-fi adventure about a young Navajo man learning to fly.

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpt      Catalogue Information

About the Book

What does a young Navajo lad do when he discovers buried treasure worth over $500,000, just after he joins the Navy? Combine that problem with the discovery of a wrecked and abandoned high-technology aircraft -- would you try to fix it, or turn it in? He has just graduated and has to make the decision as to what direction he must go. Al has studied Russian and German and thinks that being a technical interpreter may be a good job in the Navy. He enlists the help of his Uncle Ben, a retired Navy helicopter pilot and medicine man with his Korean girlfriend, Mae Lee.

Together with his mother, they decide to use some of the money to form a study group research teaching untrained Navajos to become wage earners in an area of high chronic unemployment—The Four Corners side of New Mexico. In a childhood of being a loner, he develops skill at being a leader with a massive curiosity. He loves his mother who raised him after his father abandoned them in poverty in a harsh land. Their project is joined by others who add wonderful ideas to the task.

Al's knowledge of how to use the Internet to acquire requested information starts to expand the envelope. Al has learned gambling games such as craps and video poker on his computer with no money. He learns that it is different in the real world of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Al Joe look for a hobby and finds that prospecting for rocks, minerals, historical artifacts and history can be exciting.

Are the Anasazi the predecessors of the Navajo tribe? How did they come to the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. Where did they go? What do the pictographs mean that are found in the castle-like ruins of Mesa Verde, Aztec, and Cholla parks?

Al's team investigates possible future developments in housing, aerial fire fighting equipment, new power sources, gravity-based appliances, prospecting, treasure hunting and a different way to change forest lumber production. The Author (below) has spent thirty years working with these proud people and has spun this yarn hoping you will enjoy the romp.

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About the Author

Allen Hingle was raised in a family who had an electronics inventor as a father and a school-teaching mother. He flew seven years in Naval Air during the Korean war and Vietnam era. Hingle then spent 25 years as a field engineer conducting support for electronic systems for the F102, Atlas Missiles, Swing-wing F111s and the U2 aircraft. For the last twenty years, he engineered and installed fiber optic pathways for data and voice communications. For the last 18 years, he has lived and worked extensively with the Navajo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. He has been married to his wife Peggy for over fifty years with four children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His hobby is prospecting.

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Excerpt

The monsoons came early that spring bringing a flourish of blue and white flowers to the high desert and the arid mountainside. A tropical storm in the Gulf pushed heavy clouds to the north. Fingers in this mass held their moisture until they met the cold front coming down from the northeast. Their meeting was mixed with high wind, lightning and heavy rain. The mountain ridges received the maximum violence. Shortly before midnight, two airborne vehicles had been approaching the mountain range from the lower mesa level. They were being tossed about the sky, on their way back to a mountain communications site. The pilot of Bird #1 radioed, "I know that low and slow is good for data collection, but this is ridiculous. It sounds like I am in a drum. When I find a wide spot in this canyon, I would like to come about and find us a quiet spot on the flats to sit this one out." The skipper in the other bird signaled, "Good plan. I' m having problems controlling my bird. The lightning flashes are blanking my night-vision system. Transmit Data on the metal find that we logged tonight when we get back to camp."

A close lightning flash and a greenish white fireball momentarily blinded the skipper. The aircraft ahead of him descended quickly to a canyon stream like a falling rock.

The skipper transmitted," Are you OK?" No response. "Hang in there; I will be there in a minute." Inwardly, he was calling on all of his experience to keep panic from taking over. He dropped his gear and forced a landing to set down 100 meters downstream of the downed aircraft. Additional lightning flashes! "Must get through." "Over his shoulder he yelled, "Doc! Standby, I'll see what's wrong!" He climbed out of the ship, secured the upper hatch and went down using the hand-holds. He jumped into the water and waded upstream to the other bird.

The aircraft appeared to have landed with his gear up. Quickly, he treaded to its side and grabbed the first handhold and swung up out of the water. When he reached the top, he opened the hatch and saw his partner in the control seat, grabbing at his face. Rushing to him, he saw a mass of cuts and streaming blood. The Skipper grasped one arm to assure his blinded partner that he had arrived and was there to help. He radioed, "Doc, bring the medkit, he's in level 7 crisis."

Doc grabbed the kit and climbed out, secured the hatch behind him and climbed down the side and jumped into the stream. He heard a roar and shouted into the wind ...... Inside the bird, the Skipper turned to face the missing windshield and observed the situation: A lightning flash illuminated a mountainous wall of water and mud would engulf them in the next few seconds. The Skipper screamed at the top of his lungs, "It's over................"

The ships and men were forever sealed in place by sand, mud and brush...

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Catalogue Information

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